The Sins of The Mother
by akasha-d
Summary: Remember Natusmi,although you might not be truly unique, some of those around you are.” He coyly whispered.“The nullifying gem might have its limits, but your little girlfirend does not. Keep an eye on her would you, I know I do.


Disclaimer: was not mine, is not mine, will not be mine…get the picture?

This is my first attempt at an Alice Academy fanfiction..The anime essentially grabbed me and molested my muse (Pokes growling Pugsly muse) and just WOULDN'T LEAVE ME ALONE.

So please enjoy the fruits of my rather sadistic mind!

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Tyger Tyger Burning Bright 

There was a rhythm to everything. The beats in a song, the slide of brushstrokes, the shots from a gun, all had their own rhythm. His heart throbbed with a rhythm that sang vengeance. Each pump of the muscle delivering sharp tearing pain as it shot blood through his desperate system. With practiced ease, Natusmi ignored it.

Running through the uneven ground and lush green vegetation with an unnatural grace, it was clear that jogging though a jungle was not such an unusual occurrence for the young man. Dodging thick trees and deceptively hollow bushes in the half light of the setting sun, Natsumi kept his eyes trained ahead, and his senses alert. It was far too quiet out there, a stifling, unnatural kind of silence.

He was not alone in this forest.

Driven by instinct alone, Natsumi threw himself to the ground as three daggers whizzed past the general area that was his head and struck a nearby tree. Kicking up dirt as a makeshift shield, Natsumi twisted himself into a crouch, and shot an arm out towards the general area of a shadowed branch. The branch was immediately engulfed in a sea of angry red flames, as Natusmi's alice took its revenge.

From well below the flaming branch, a pitch black figure straightened itself out from what was obviously a sharp dive from the aforementioned branch. Deceptively delicate hands flicked stray flecks of dirt off dark robes as a masked face peered at the crouched form of Natsumi.

"Very, very impressive, Natsumi" came to suffocating voice of Persona. "You might have even singed me, if you had actually tried"

Natsumi scowled at the masked man as he gracefully made his way forward uncaring the bright flame that currently eating its way through the tree. The scent of burning wood was suffocating. "I would have burnt you if you had not cheated." Eyes still sharp for any sign of attack, Natsumi knew that simply because he could now see Persona, didn't mean that the man was any less dangerous.

"And if you still expect me to play fair, you are more stupid now then you were years ago." Now nearly in front of him, Natsumi could clearly make out the dark gem, once violet but fading to black in his trainers grasp. The realization smacked Natsumi behind the head with a vengeance.

"A nullifying gem" He breathed "Is a pathetic way to fight a battle." Glaring hard at Persona's masked visage, Natsumi desperately wanted to take the now black gem and stuff it down his trainer's throat.

"That it might be, but it is an excellent way to win one." Drawing up the gem for his inspection, Persona studied the dark gem. "Such a shame though, it is only good for one use. And carrying more than one will nullify all of the gems' ability altogether." With what could have been a sigh, Persona unceremoniously threw the gem to the ground like so much rubbish.

Natsumi observed his teacher's act. "Are we done yet, or should I prove to you what I can do to you when you don't have a shield to hide behind."

In an instant, Natsumi found himself inches away from persona's black tipped fingers. The move was so fast, for all his training even Natsumi himself couldn't see it. Left sprawled ungracefully on the ground, Natusmi felt very aware of how dangerous Persona really was. In his position right now, all it would take was a simple flick of Persona's Alice to turn Natusmi into a pile of blackened molecules.

"Don't forget boy, who is the teacher and who is the pupil. You may be improving, but you'll need lifetimes yet to catch up with me." Persona's voice was like cold steel against Natsumi's ears.

And almost as fast as he attacked, Persona withdrew. Standing straight once again, the masked man seemed to allow himself a smirk. "You should be more careful Natsumi, your alice, though powerful, is not truly unique when it comes to our business. Any offensive type alice could replace you at any day. Keep that in mind."

Feeling severely chided, Natsumi bit his lip in an effort to stop the insults that were clawing at his throat for a chance to escape. It wouldn't do to die now. And persona was more then capable of doing just that at the hint of impertinence from his student.

Turning around with a flourish, Persona made his way back into the shadows dancing in protest around the burning tree. "You should also remember Natusmi, that although you might not be unique, but some of those around you are." Casting a glance over his shoulder, Natsumi's ruby gaze met with the consuming black that was hidden within the white mask.

"The nullifying gem might have its limits, but your little girlfriend does not. Keep an eye on her would you, I know I am."

With that, Persona dissolved into the darkness, disappearing like a midsummer's dream, leaving Natsumi with a cold chill in his bones and only one thing reverberating in his mind.

_Mikan! _

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"Please kill me and put me out of my misery!"

In an instant three heads tore their gazes from their respective text books to stare worriedly at the source of the statement. Around them, the words echoed between the imposing stacks of books that made up the library.

Kokoroyomi, looking quite unaffected by his own words cheerfully flipped open another page of his book oblivious to the looks from his classmates and dear friends.

Wise to the ways of his alice, Sumire was the first to recognize the work of Kokoroyomi's mind reading ability and paused to run a wary eye over the few students gathered in the nearly empty library study tables.

Moments later Mikan Sakura thrust her head to the table with a groan of defeat.

All seated knew immediately who the source of Kokroyomi's outcry was.

"Why does this have to be so hard?" Mikan's whine was slightly muffled by the table as she curled her arms around her head and her chemistry book as a makeshift cushion.

Sumire was honestly not able to put up with another 'why we must study so hard' whine from Mikan Sakura and decided to nip this whine in the bud.

"It is very hard because only a hard skull can hold up the hollow place that should be your brain."

Mikan lifted her head from its nest and glared at Sumire as the cat-girl basked in the genius of her comeback. Looking back at that glare, Sumire was pounced upon by the weird beast known as nostalgia and the infected brain cells were forced into a brief review comparison of past and present.

The last seven years left its mark on the features of the now seventeen year old brunet. Though she still insisted on her trademark pigtails with its innocent curl in the ends, her eyes no longer seemed far too wide for her face, and there was a certain delicacy to Mikan's features that made her striking if not decidedly pretty. That was of course if the person observing was not one Shoda Sumire. Mentally mauling nostalgia beasts Sumire forced herself to focus on the present.

"I was talking about Chemistry, not the thickness of heads!" Mikan replied as her honey eyes flashed beneath her twitching brow.

"Well you weren't very clear about it." Sumire uttered, with a flutter of her hand over her reference book. "You must admit that you probably do have a very thick scull to be as dense as you sometimes can be."

Seeing Mikan gather herself up for what might be either a scream or a bout of bawling (which she was recently prone to doing) Tobita Yuu decided that it was time to step in before things got ugly.

"Now-now girls, do remember that you are in the library, so try to keep the peace please. We have our final exams in three weeks and we all want to do well neh?" Yuu ended his sentence with a nearly threatening flash of his glasses. It was a trick he picked up in his early teen hood when the planes of his face carved towards being masculine and it allowed him to look more intimidating. 'The look' as it was so affectionately dubbed, worked well to scare his classmates into some vague form of order when commotion broke out, which knowing their class, was often.

That toped off with his new baritone voice made him one of the 'fan girls top five Hottest Hunks in school'.

A sharp bark of laughter drew the attention of the three to the only silent member of their group.

"Honesty Yuu, I wonder what gave you the idea that there was any peace to have? When it comes to these two, it is constant warfare."

Ruka's gentle voice had changed little with maturity. Blond hair in its usual state of controlled chaos, he was gracelessly sprawled on the chair looking rather cramped with his 'nearly too long to be natural' limbs positioned in any which way. At times Natusme had the sheer cheek to call his best fried a 'gangly six foot tall gorilla' and though the female population of the school disagreed about the gorilla bit, it was a rather apt description of the six foot tall star basketball player.

He was also on the 'fan girls' top five hottest hunks in school'.

Sumire huffed, and flicked a stray lock of her green tinted hair out of her eyes, "It's not my fault she falls for it every time!"

Mikan proved her maturity by grandly sticking out her tongue and tugging down one eyelid at Sumire. Once again the two boys broke into fresh chuckles.

Sumire responded by turning up her nose, and huffing out her disapproval of such immature tactics. "Yeah, real mature Mikan, why don't you act you age?"

"Oh come on Mire, Just cause you are the OLDEST here does not mean you are allowed to lord it over everyone else!" Kokoroyomi said unwisely.

STOMP

"OW!" shrieked Kokroyomi, "Yeesh! Watch where you stomp your heals Sumire, they hurt".

This once again reduced the boys into fits of laughter.

"No matter how adorable it is to watch the darling couple play the S&M version of footsie, I'm gonna' have to kick you lot out of the library, its closing time." Spoke the authority laden voice of the school librarian as she leaned against a tall bookrack seeming to appear form no where.

Yuu, who always was the first to respond to authority, was still trying desperately to be in denial about the 'not so big' crush he had on the school librarian. "Ms Megumi, honestly how do you move without making any noise? Were you a ninja in your last life?"

Ms Megumi gave a devilish grin that somehow gave her usually elegant features an impish look that contrasted heavily with her severe grey blazer and pencil skirt. "Well if you count getting a black belt in librarian-isme, where we train for years to sneak up on young couples making out in the library in the most inopportune moments, then yes."

Everyone noticed that she gave a pointed look at Sumire who was turning red, and Kokroyomi who was grinning from ear to ear.

Surprisingly enough it was Yuu who verbalized his opinion on the matter "Too much info!"

And the group was once again reduced to a giggling mass.

"Well that's it, it seems I am reduced to using force to extract you lot of over zealous bookworms out of my library before midnight!" said Ms Megumi with an unholy gleam in her brown eyes.

Still pink faced and gasping from breath from laughter, Mikan stared blankly at Ms Megumi as she tried to comprehend the real scope of 'force'.

With a smooth flick Ms Megumi's wrist, there was a distinct sound of crinkling paper as all the gathered text books and notes levitated themselves off the table and attacked.

"RUN!" shouted Ruka as he dodged a thick book that was attempting to pelt itself towards his head.

As one body, the five students stumbled their way over upturned chairs and furniture to avoid being hit by their books and papers. Running through the library, there were shrieks of laughter as Mikan's cursed Chemistry book opened its pages and was attempting to 'eat' her hair.

Pushing open the front door, all five teens made a hasty exit and barely made their way to the bottom of the stairs without tripping over themselves. Pausing at the bottom of the grand staircase that made the front entrance of the library, they silently observed their notes and books pause, and then meekly arrange themselves into five neat piles according to their owners.

"That was mean Ms Megumi! You could have at least given us a proper warning this time" Shouted Mikan to the cheerful librarian who was peeking out of the library front door too see the panting forms of the teens.

"Honey if it did that, us evil librarians would have lost our evil title years ago! Instead of standing there like the bunch of brats you are why don't you guys go to bed, it's already ten for gods' sake and you lot look like you need a break!" said Ms Megumi good naturedly.

Moving forward to pick up what was his pile of books, Yuu noticed a sheet of pale blue paper innocently folded on the very top of his pile, that he was certain did not belong to him. Upon further investigation, he noticed that the letter was sealed with bright red wax molded into the image of a cat.

In an instant, he felt a cold shiver down his spine.

Moving forward Yuu grabbed hold of the paper and hastily unfolded it, nearly ripping the sheet in half. Around him his friends continued their banter, unknowing of the dread that curled within him.

_i Watch her; there has been movement up north. /i _

Glancing up from the cursive writing, Yuu's stare met up with a knowing onyx gaze. It was a clear message from Ms Megumi. Mikan was being observed by the top officials in the school, and as far as anyone was concerned, getting too much attention from up there was never a good thing.

Tilting his head into a slight nod, Yuu discreetly passed the note into one of Ruka's thicker books and gathered his belongings into his arms. Natsumi would defiantly have to be informed of this, and the ideal messenger would be his best friend.

Though none of them mentioned it, but the real reason this 'study group' was called together was to keep an eye on Mikan. The young woman recently seemed unhealthily pale and thin but had smilingly brushed away any questions about it. The fact that there has also been 'enquiries' from the upper levels of school about her health didn't put anyone at ease either.

There have been cases of students miraculously being 'sent home for personal reasons', none of which ever returned.

News was that they never reached home either.

Ruka smelled a rat, as did Natusme, leading both boys to arrange it so that Mikan was hardly ever left alone for long periods of time with the best bodyguards in the world, her friends.

"Now go to bed you lot, I don't want to be questioned tomorrow about why a bunch of students were lurking about after curfew!" was Ms Megumi's last words before she firmly shut the large glass doors that made up the entrance of the library.

"Hey Ruka, why don't you loan your Physics text book to Natusme, I heard he lost it and I bet he hasn't done a stitch of revision." Yuu announced carelessly as he rearranged his books in a more comfortable position in his arms.

Also grappling with the load in his arms, Ruka was slightly perplexed by what Yuu's statement. If Natsume had lost anything, much less a book, Ruka would have defiantly been the first to know, yet he had no recollection of such a thing.

Parting his lips to question Yuu further, Ruka's thoughts were immediately attacked by an alien voice.

"_There is a message in there for both you and Natusme, you idiot!" _

Hearing the familiar voice of Kokroyomi but only in his head was still a rather strange occurrence for Ruka, even though he knew that both sending and receiving mental messages were now in the telepaths power. Along with that information, came the insight into the true nature of the 'message'. Feeling a vague sense of dread, Ruka's gut instinct supplied that whatever message that was in his book, it would not help him sleep at night.

"What am I his mother? If he doesn't want to study, leave him alone. With his grades, it's not like he will need it anyway!" Ruka made it a point to catch the eye of Yuu to signal that he had indeed received the message.

"Well you are his friend, the only one he is going to have left at the rate he is going!" Mikan muttered. The lack of the young man's presence in their gatherings was a worry for her.

"Don't be too sore about it, its not like Hotaru decided that we were worth her time either!" added Sumire thoughtlessly defending her childhood crush. The boys winced at how Sumire managed to ram at yet another weak spot of the pig tailed girl, not necessarily intentionally but with the accuracy of a guided missile.

Mikan absently leaned over to collect her books and made ducked her head to hide her eyes behind the shadows of her bangs. Her sudden stillness was telling enough about Mikan's inner turmoil the lack of contact between Hotaru and herself over the past semester despite her best efforts was a very difficult topic for the young woman.

"You know what guys, I am gonna call it a night. We have school tomorrow and like Ms Megumi said, we'd be in trouble if we were caught together past curfew. " Mikan took a deep breath, and continued with forced cheer. "Good night ok? Make sure you guys actually make it to bed! Sumire, I think we better make a move now if you don't mind I haven't finished some of my homework and I don't want to be given detention tomorrow."

When Sumire responded with a guilty squeak that Mikan interpreted as an affirmative, she briskly turned around and slowly made her way down a shadowed path towards the students quarters

Feeling severely chided Sumire as she realized the true extent of her words, glance back guiltily at the three boys, before moving forward to silently trail the young woman.

"This situation is not getting any better, and Natsumi's secrecy is definitely not helping!" Ruka grumbled "Mikan is sitting in hot water and all we've been doing is sitting around and waiting for some calamity or other to fall on our heads!"

Yuu sighed and indulged himself is a slight show of frustration by brushing his one free hand through his hair. It irked him to no end that he didn't know the whole situation. HE was the tactician of the group. He was supposed to know every move of the 'enemy' before it even happened and subsequently plan a suitable defense for it. But being only half informed about any situation made planning an excruciatingly difficult.

"I don't know Ruka, right now, all that we know is that Mikan is in danger, and I for one am willing to do anything in my power to make sure they do not get their hands on her."

Ruka frowned, glared at the ground. This whole situation stank of set up, and he didn't have a clue as to why anyone would want to hurt the poor girl. "I still don't like it." He morosely replied slowly shuffling his way towards the boys' dormitories.

"None of us do." Whispered Kokoroyomi as he silently stared at the retreating back of Ruka and wandered what it would be like to be as in love as the young man was.

From within the shadowed walls of the library, a young woman deftly plucked out a handphone from her pocket, and flipped it open to dial a long memorized number. Tapping her feet impatiently at the sound of the dial tone, she lets loose a smile when the call is finally answered.

"_The message has been delivered, reactions were expected. As planned, all further movement is now the responsibility of Agent Dragon. Agent Air signing out." /i _

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Please drop in some reviews if you think this story is worth, and feel free to be critique it as you feel fit.

more reviews-- happy me-- faster update…

Simple, no?


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